258 THE ALIEX PRIORY OF AXDWELL. complicity in the rebellion of the Princes, which is said to have caused the death of the King through vexation and sorrow, and received the reward of his chsloyalty from the awakened conscience of Richard L, at his accession, he beyond question was the person whose lands were given away, and liis rents received by King John. But it is certain, that, at the very time, when this Adam was in disgrace and exile, there was another member of the family of the same name, apparently high in the favour of John, frequently in attend- ance on his person, and employed by him in posts of great trust and importance : his name appears among the witnesses of several charters granted by that King ; of one, for instance, of confirmation to the Abbey of Malmesbury,^ 30th of Sep. A.R. 1"^'°" He also witnessed a treaty of alliance offensive and defensive between the King of England, and Reginald, Count of Bologne,^ in the same year. In the 4th of John, he M^as with the king in Normandy, as appears by the following entry in the RotuU Xormannice, p. 60, "Rex. &c., Ballivis, &c., de Barbeft, kc. Invenite bonam et securam navem sine precio Ade de Port, & Johi fil. Hug. ducentibus prisonas nostros in Angliam, et computabitur vobis ad scac- carium. Teste me ipso apud Faleis x- die Augusti." These prisoners were probably some of those unhappy persons, who were taken in John's successful attack in the night of the 31st of July, a.d. 1202, on the French army sent by Phihp Augustus to the aid of Arthur of Brittany, then besieoino; the Queen Dowao'er Eleanor, in the castle of Mire- beau, near Poictiers. On that occasion not a single person of consequence in Arthur's army escaped : two-and-twenty prisoners of rank were sent to England, and were starved to death in Corfe Castle. In the 7th 3'ear of the same King, we find Adam de Port, witnessing a charter of confirmation granted to the monks of Dunkewell. In the same year, he was involved in a brawl in the streets of Winchester, between his own followers, and those of Philip de Lucy, in which Eudo the Clerk, son of Alexander the Cordwainer, was slain ; in consequence of which, his lands were seized into the King's hand ; but his influence was sufficiently great to obtain their immediate restoration, and, subsequently, a special pardon for John de Fiscamp, one of his retainers, probabh^ the person, by whose hand the slain man had fallen. In the ninth year, ' Rot. Chart, p. -23. ' Ibid. p. 20.
